Frustrating Situation · Cool Dog Skool

Frustrating Situation

I had a frustrating situation at work today that I just need to talk about in here.

I was in the back and my coworker came back all excited because there were like 5 service dogs from an organization here just doing training. We are very serious about asking the two permissible ADA questions, which my coworkers did and the dogs were from an organization I recognized (but not naming here because people have opinions of orgs and I’m not going to get into that lol). So I went over without Atlas (left him in the back) and just introduced myself and told them I had my service dog in the back so that they were aware and that I’d leave him in the back so I set them (and him) up for success.

They thanked me and I went back in the back. This is where it gets frustrating… a coworker came and was like “One of the girls wants to see Atlas because she’s thinking about getting a poodle next” and I was like “I’ll come out with him but not with another dog around for both dogs’ safety” so I go out and kinda peek around the corner and she had a golden retriever SDIT with her. We kept our distance and she complimented how handsome he is and then I gave Atlas a treat for not focusing on the dog and not 2 seconds later bro decided to run up to said dog. I was SO mad at him, but also didn’t love that my coworker said there wouldn’t be a dog and then there was so both our dogs weren’t set up for success. I’m embarassed he did that and upset because if the dog had wanted to, it also could have decided to cause a problem.

I corrected him (on like 70 before he finally refocused and stopped pulling on the leash…) and it was over and she didn’t say anything to me about it at all but I’m paranoid and frustrated by both Atlas’ behavior and my coworker not understanding the importance of the dogs not being near each other. I expected them to be all the way across the library because that’s what she indicated to me. Ugh.

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